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if such a resource be found unmanageable , the fund should be provided elsewhere . One would think that at least the bishoprics of Ireland could be placed on a scale of extent and endowment equal to the duties to be performed . Measure both by a fair English average ; and it is certain that such an arrangement would ( at the same time that it strengthened the Protestant Church , by making it more just and respectable ) furnish ample funds for the decent support of the Catholic hierarchy .

8 . The Government , having based itself on just principles , might , by legislative authority , provide and strictly enforce all such regulations as might really be necessary for repressing any action of its Catholic subjects tending to civil disorder , or any consequences of discipline , foreign or domestic , which should be found inconsistent with internal tranquillity . Catholie governments find no difficulty in this ; and there is no reason why Protestant authorities should be weaker . The Duke of Wellington very properly

observed , that what is to be done on this head is much better done by legislation than by negotiations , which only embarrass and compromise both parties . When once , however , it was the policy of the Government to render all the business and discipline of the Catholic Church as overt as possible , ( by furnishing it with the means of conducting its affairs openly , and with decent state and order , ) and thus to bring every thing under the

control of public opinion , instead of drawing it into a sort of smuggling trade , we should hear very little of the necessity of securities , though , to please the old ladies , it might be politic to make some provisions . 9 . A provision in the nature of our poor laws , duly regulated , should be established . The principle that the poor must live , though the landlord may choose to spend their earnings in a foreign land , should be enforced ; that it may be made the interest of the rich to improve the condition of those whom

they must otherwise maintain , instead of driving them over to impoverish England . To these matters of primary necessity I should add , that public improvements should be zealously encouraged , till security for person and property has drawn capital into the country . In Dublin , and , if necessary , in every county , special commissions of public improvements , in arts , commerce , agriculture , and internal administration , should for a time be put in action , with ample powers to do what can be done promptly , liberally ^ and at once . The renovation of the frame of society should , with the truest economy , be well pushed at first .

I cannot but persuade myself that if the government were once seen to be rigidly just , and being just , became strong , vigilant , and inflexible , in its purpose ; if equal laws were administered ; if religious distinctions and consequent party factions were abolished ; if the sources of a thousand petty

heart-burnings were removed ; if it were made the interest of the aristocracy which forms the curse of the land , to become its blessing , —the seeds would be sown which a little fostering care would soon ripen into an abundant harvest , and Ireland would at last have some chance of possessing a powerful , united , and happy people . ' A DISSENTER .